Numerous types of devices and systems are used at today's homes, offices, schools, and businesses. For example, homes include various appliances such as radios, televisions, stereos, stoves, ovens, and refrigerators. In another example, lighting devices (e.g., lamps, area lights and so forth) are used to illuminate various areas of homes, offices or business.
Still other types of devices are employed to control appliances, lights, thermostats alarms, and other devices. For example, a home automation system may operate or otherwise control the lighting devices that are used in a home. A thermostat may control heating devices (e.g., furnaces) and cooling devices (e.g., air conditioners) that affect the temperature of some controlled area of the home. Security systems are deployed to protect areas from intruders. All of the above-mentioned devices and systems consume energy (or control other devices that themselves consume energy) and/or affect the health, comfort, safety, or enjoyment of an area by a user (e.g., the home owner or business owner).
It is often desirable to optimize the operation and reduce the energy consumption of the above-mentioned devices and systems. Economic and/or environmental concerns have to be balanced against the benefits received in operating the device. For example, many homeowners desire to save energy and reduce their energy expenses, but may want to fully use a device at specific times. To take a specific example, it is often not desirable to operate many lighting devices at full power when there is no one at home. In another example, homeowners often want to control their home thermostat to conserve energy when they are away from home. In the summer, homeowners may wish to have the thermostat temperature controlled to permit a temperature to go higher when they are not at home. Conversely, in the winter homeowners may wish to permit a room temperature to go lower through a lower thermostat setting when they are away from home.
Some previous approaches have attempted to conserve energy usage in homes, businesses, and other locations. For example, home automation systems have been developed that control appliances and attempt to reduce unnecessary energy usage. Unfortunately, many of these previous approaches are not flexible in their implementation or operation. For instance, previous lighting control systems can typically turn lights on or off only at predetermined times.
It is also often desirable to automatically operate devices and systems in the home without manual intervention. Manual approaches have been attempted where users manually change the operation of devices under their control, but these manual approaches are burdensome to implement. Some automatic approaches have also been used, but these approaches cannot determine when a homeowner or other occupant is truly on-site, thereby leading to inappropriate decisions as to device or system operation.
Additionally it is desirable to operate devices and systems according to whether an occupier is truly present in an area (e.g., a homeowner or some other person). If these devices are not operated properly, undesirable consequences may occur. For example, in garage door systems that employ a “timer-to-close” feature, the door may close automatically after having been opened. This is not desirable when a home owner, for instance, takes out the trash, stays outside longer than the time to close and is locked out of his home. Previous systems do not have a way of distinguishing as to whether a homeowner has left home or intends to immediately return.
Because of the above-mentioned problems concerning previous approaches, energy continues to be wasted, higher energy expenses continue to be incurred, undesirable operation of home systems sometimes occurs, and general user frustration and inconvenience is frequently created.